The present invention relates to the field of perfumery. It concerns, more particularly, the use of optically active isomers of (E)-3,3-dimethyl-5-(2,2,3-trimethyl-3-cyclopenten-1-yl)-4-penten-2-ol as perfuming ingredients.
The above-mentioned compound has been described in European patent N.degree. 155 591, wherein its odor is said to be of the sandalwood, balsamic, sweet and milky type. Furthermore, an optically active isomer of said compound, i.e. (-)-(E)-3,3-dimethyl-5-(2',2',3'-trimethyl-3'-cyclopenten-1'-yl)-4-penten- 2-ol, is also described, but no mention of its characteristic odor properties can be found in this reference. In fact, it is quite clear that the specific odor properties of each individual optically active isomer or chiral species went totally undetected at the time, since it is indicated in the document mentioned above that the various diastereomers of each compound described were hardly distinguishable from each other, from an olfactive point of view. On the basis of this document, no advantage would therefore have been expected from the use in perfumery of any one of the optically active isomers in particular. Yet, it has just been surprisingly discovered that in fact some of said isomers are choice perfuming ingredients, while others are less useful for perfumery applications.